Some computer systems have a firmware BIOS containing basic routines which are accessed to boot the computer as well as to initialize and interface hardware with operating system software. In many modern computer systems, the BIOS code is stored as groups of memory “blocks” in a re-programmable memory device typically known as a “flash” part. A flash part is a type of non-volatile random access memory (“NVRAM”) allowing existing BIOS code to be easily updated or replaced by using software to erase and program the flash part. Many flash parts include a hardware protected memory block of a fixed size called a “boot block” which cannot be erased when the hardware protection is engaged. The boot block in a flash part may store program code for starting a computer system as well as self-contained program code for recovering the BIOS to the flash part from a user-supplied BIOS “image file” which, for older computer systems, is typically stored on a floppy disk. The image file contains a copy of the BIOS code which is accessed by the boot block recovery code in the event the BIOS code in the flash part becomes corrupted or is unintentionally erased.
In recent years the size of the typical BIOS code stored in the flash parts of modern computer systems has increased beyond the storage capacity of a conventional floppy disk in order to support added features such as language modules (for providing foreign language support) and graphic images which may be displayed to a user during the computer startup sequence. This increase in the size of the BIOS code has resulted in a corresponding increase in the size of the image file needed to recover the BIOS, which is also beyond the capacity of a floppy disk. As a result, modern BIOS images are limited to larger media for storage. Furthermore, as support for new features is added to computer systems, the size of the BIOS code will continue to increase, thus further limiting the availability of media for storing BIOS image files needed for recovery.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.